Mobile Tech & Gadgets

The latest Stranger Things deepfake is so amazing that it shows that reality is beginning to be optional

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This week, a Brazilian content creator named ederxavier3d published an amazing video on his Instagram account. In it they appeared several of the protagonists of the series ‘Stranger Things’ making just the gestures and expressions that he made in the lower window. He explained that he had achieved it in a simple way and thanks to the new Kling 2.6 and its characteristic Motion Control. This option allows the movements we make in a video to be transferred to any real or fictitious person, regardless of the style in which they are represented (it can be a comic book character) with an amazing result. And in the case of the Brazilian creator’s video it can be clearly seen: these videos could perfectly pass for real in almost all cases. It is true that if you look closely you can sense that something is wrong, but only because the video has been shared making it clear that it was created with AI. This video has once again awakened a debate that has been linked to this type of deepfakes for some time. Justine Moore, partner at investment firm a16z, explained that “we are not prepared for how quickly (video) production flows are going to change with AI. Some of the latest video models have immediate implications for Hollywood. Endless character swaps at negligible costs.” How the story has changed. In April 2023 we proposed a little game to all of you who read us: Would you be able to distinguish a real image from one generated by AI? At that time, AI was already achieving remarkable results—the image of the Pope with the coat proved it—but the feeling was that we could still tell whether an image had been created with an AI or not. With the video things were even clearer.because at that time AI video generation I was in diapers. Three years later things are very different, and there are several AI platforms (I see 3, Sora 2Kling, Runway) that generate videos that anyone could easily confuse without problems. Tell Will Smith. ederxavier3d’s video also demonstrates this, and in fact something unique happened with it: there were rumors that the Stranger Things characters had actually recorded those appearances and the creator had imitated their movements, and then rumors appeared that denied that this was true and that suggested that from the beginning the videos were nothing more than what they seemed: deepfakes created with AI. A priori everything would suggest that this is the case: the Kling 2.6 feature is not at all new and other platforms allow our movements and gestures – and even our voice – to be transferred to a character generated by AI. The problem is that At this point it is almost impossible to distinguish whether that person who appears on the screen is real or not. This technology is extraordinarily striking and causes that “wow effect” that AI companies so seek, but despite the creative options it offers, the risks here seem especially notable. The identity theft It is now easier to achieve than ever, and that will probably mean that we will see many more dangerous cases. It is enough to remind the employee that transferred 25 million dollars believing that the person who told him via videoconference was his real boss. It is not clear how, for example, Hollywood studios will react to this technology, but for now some are already taking action on the matter to try to protect themselves. The best example is Matthew McConaughey, who these days has “patented himself” to have one more legal resource (which we are not sure is necessary) to protect yourself against possible videos impersonating you. The implications are enormous, and we are entering an era in which something disturbing is going to happen: We will not be able to trust what we see on a screen. In Xataka | “Hello, I’m your grandson and I need $3,000”: there are already scams on the elderly with voices generated by AI

the “miracle” of Namibia to fill Europe’s supermarkets with grapes

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The country of ‘Namibia’ may a priori be truly unknown to many people, but the reality is that many of the grapes we buy in the EU come from here. a country practically desert that has been achieved and that a priori is not ready to host cultivation, but that has achieved something unusual: converting one of the most arid landscapes on the planet into a large grape plantation that compete in the most demanding markets. An evolution. In this way, what three decades ago was a silent, sun-battered valley on the banks of the Orange River, Today it is the epicenter of the billion-dollar grape industry.. The Aussenkehr region has not only “greened” the desert, it has redefined the global table grape calendar. The origin. The industry was born from the vision of Dusan Vasiljevican entrepreneur who in 1988 identified Aussenkehr’s hidden potential. The challenge was monumental: an environment with less than 50 liters of annual rainfall, a total lack of infrastructure and no previous experience in growing grapes in the area. A priori, only a madman could build a grape plantation here, since it seemed like a guaranteed waste of money. But in the end it was quite the opposite. Overcoming critical financial obstacles, Vasiljevic planted the first 150 hectares, achieving an initial harvest of 1,000 tons in 1991. Since then, expansion has been constant. Collaboration between the private sector and entities such as the Namibia Grape Company (NGC) and the national government has allowed cultivation to be extended to more than 700 additional hectares, turning the valley into an engine of development that currently exports to a good part of the planet. great growth. Namibia’s quantitative leap in recent decades is an economic case study without a doubt. The country’s ability to take advantage of its ideal climate for early harvests allows it to enter the European market before its competitors, obtaining very good prices. This way, exports have passed from 1,917 tons in 1997 to having 7.5 billion cartons ready to ship this season. All this with a value that in 2023 reached 84.2 billion dollars. Your logistics. Namibian success does not depend only on production, but on robust logistics. Right now the main market for this production company is in the European Union, which absorbs 75% of the production, followed by the United Kingdom and emerging markets in Asia. That is why the company’s focus has been on high-value varieties such as Arra Honey Pop and Arra Fire Crunch that offer greater flavor and, above all, more resistance in transportation. Regarding its exit routes to other countries, the strategic ports of Walvis Bay and Cape Town stand out above all, which guarantee the necessary freshness for European shelves. satellite images. But words can sometimes create confusion or even give rise to the idea that we are completely exaggerating. But the reality is that the satellite images do not deceive, and reveal a great contrast between the bright green of the plantations in contrast with the ocher sand of the Namib. View from Google Earth of the grape plantation in Namibia It is also fantastic for lovers of geometric shapes, since in the images you can clearly see different almost perfect green squares in the middle of an arid background. And the truth is that it seems a miracle that it has been possible to revitalize this land that now supplies the European market with a large quantity of grapes. This is something that in 2010 was the focus of NASA that used he Advanced Land Imager and gave recent scientific studies, like those from WaterWatchwhich highlight that Namibia has achieved these yields with exceptional water efficiency, using precision irrigation systems that minimize waste of water from the Orange River. Socioeconomic impact. Beyond foreign currency, grapes have become the livelihood of thousands of families in this area. Right now, the industry supports 3,500 permanent workers and 7,000 temporary employees during harvest peaks. Furthermore, this model has been praised in international forums such as Davos, where it was presented as an example of how irrigated agriculture can be sustainable and profitable in arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa. In Xataka | In the midst of desertification, Australia has had an idea as strange as it is effective to retain water: covering the land with wool

The Google Pixel 10 Pro cheaper than ever, the Nintendo Switch 2 in a pack with two games, offers on watches and more. Hunting Bargains

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Christmas will be over, but The offers continue to arrive, standing out not only in quantity, but also in quality.. Stores like Amazon, MediaMarkt and many others have added tons of discounts on a huge variety of devices. If you are looking for the Nintendo Switch 2 at a good price or want to renew your mobile, keep an eye out for this week’s Bargain Hunting offers. Google Pixel 10 Pro by 749 eurosthe best price we have seen to date. Even better than Black Friday. nintendo switch 2 by 509 eurosa pack that includes two exclusive Nintendo video games. Bit F7 by 448.99 eurosa pack that in addition to the mobile phone includes a tablet. OnePlus Watch Lite by 159 eurosa smartwatch in a pack that includes the brand’s Bluetooth headphones. PocketBook Era Color by 213.90 eurosan e-book reader with a color screen. Google Pixel 10 Pro One of the best offers of the entire week has fallen on the Google Pixel 10 Proa mobile phone that, although it is true that it has received many offers in recent months, now has the best one we have seen to date: Amazon has it for 749 euros. It is a small mobile (6.3 inches) that comes with 16 GB of RAM, its battery supports wireless charging, its software will be updated for many years and Its photographic section is a delight. Google Pixel 10 Pro (128GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links nintendo switch 2 There are not a few offers that we have seen in the nintendo switch 2 since its launch. After a Christmas full of discounts, MediaMarkt now has a special offer on a pack put together by the store itself: the Nintendo Switch 2 comes with the official pack that includes the ‘Mario Kart World‘, but also for the same price you can select the video game ‘Pokémon ZA Legends‘ totally free. In this way, the console is left with two games per 509 euros. If you prefer, MediaMark has the Nintendo Switch 2 for 469 euros. It does not include ‘Mario Kart World’, but it does come with ‘Pokémon Legends Z-A’. In both cases, To select these packs assembled by MediaMarkt, you must select them a little further down in the store. Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World + Pokémon ZA Legends The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Little F7 From time to time Xiaomi launches the odd pack on offer. We see it a lot on the phone, and this time it was the turn of the Little F7 that, for a price of 489.99 euroscomes along with the Redmi Pad 2a tablet with good build quality and a screen and sound combo perfect for consuming multimedia content. As regards the Little F7it is a mobile phone that incorporates a good 6.83-inch screen that offers 1.5K resolution. Its processor is the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 and Its battery is 6,500 mAh. It is also waterproof (IP68) and comes with 256 GB of internal storage. Poco F7 (256GB) + Redmi Pad 2 (128GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links OnePlus Watch Lite There are no two without three. He OnePlus Watch Lite It arrived recently and the official store not only has it on sale with a good discount, but also has it in a pack with the OnePlus Nord Buds 3 ProBluetooth headphones with adaptive cancellation that are valued at 79 euros. The watch pack with the headphones remains in 159 euros. As for the OnePlus Watch Lite, it is a smartwatch that has a 1.46-inch AMOLED screen. It has 4 GB of internal storage, Its theoretical autonomy reaches a week with typical useincludes GPS and comes with more than 100 sports modes, as well as a good assortment to monitor physical activity. OnePlus Watch Lite + OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro The price could vary. We earn commission from these links PocketBook Era Color If you didn’t get to take advantage of the numerous deals we saw on Kindle and Kobo readers over Christmas, we can still find plenty of discounts on other brands. During the El Corte Inglés Sales, you can buy the PocketBook Era Color by 213.90 euros. It is an eReader with a 7-inch color anti-glare screen that allows you to access eBiblio from the browser. It plays books and audiobooks and is compatible with a wide range of formats. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Google, Nintendo, Xiaomi, OnePlus, PocketBook In Xataka | The best mobile phones, we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | The best smartwatches (2026): their analyzes and videos are here

Oasiz’s bankruptcy shows its limits

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Today the expression “retail apocalypse” It may sound like science fiction to us, but there was a time (not so long ago) in which it seemed a sentence imminent for traditional commerce. His logic was very simple: if people could buy whatever they wanted from whoever they wanted and from wherever they wanted with a ‘click’, why would they go to traditional shopping areas, with the costs that that entails? time has shown that neither e-commerce Neither COVID-19 has taken away our pleasure in going to shopping centers, but that does not mean that they do not seek to reinvent themselves. And in this attempt two clear strategies can be seen: gradually becoming ‘urban theme parks’ and spaces that pamper luxury and exclusivity. New times, new models. Today the ghost of “retail apocalypse” seems scared away (in reality the phenomenon always was more linked to the US than Spain, where the market is less saturated), but that does not mean that the shopping centers of 2026 can continue living with the model that popularized them 30, 20 or 10 years ago. After all, if we can buy anything on AliExpress or Amazon, why go to the nearest shopping center? If we can watch movies on Prime or Netflix, why are we going to take the car, eat a traffic jam and then fight in the parking lot to go to the movies? Who goes to the mall? The million dollar question. The sector has studies that detail the user profile who go to their centers: how much time they spend there, where they move from, the weight of foreigners, how far their “area of ​​influence” extends… A wide range of data in which one in particular stands out: customers spend more time where, in addition to food, clothing, appliances or any other merchandise, they offer us experiences. Beyond customer loyalty to their reference shopping center or the proximity factor, users seem particularly willing to spend time in the so-called “experience centers”those that have a differentiated offer and are sold as places to “live experiences.” With the watch in your hand. The above may sound like theory, but it is perfectly measured. a study published in 2024 by CBRE shows that, although we spend an average of 56 minutes in shopping centers in general, when we talk about “experience” areas, that figure shoots up to 71 or even 100. Double the time we invest in “convenience centers”, those that basically rely on supermarkets and focus on food. The report It also detected that the “Family&Fun” centers, aimed primarily at families, have a higher customer loyalty rate than the rest of the facilities. They are no longer just warehouses in which to shop or have a drink, they are living spaces where we make memories. What does that mean? That people no longer only go to shopping centers to buy some shoes, watch TV for the living room or fill the refrigerator. We can do this through other channels, even without leaving home, with our mobile phone. What we are looking for is the differentiating factor, an experience or a plus that compensates for traveling to the venue. It’s worth the effort for us. It allows the centers to retain their attractiveness as spaces in which to “have a good time” with friends or family, the value that made them popular in the 20th century. “More and more customers are looking for experiences and entertainment in shopping centers. Many are integrating experiences into retail to attract more users,” explained already in 2021 a manager of the La Vaguada Shopping Center. He is not the only one who thinks this way. In 2024 Diego Ramos published on LinkedIn a column who came to a similar conclusion: merchandise is no longer enough for us, now we want experiences, “socializing, having fun, creating memories.” Changing the anchor. In his opinion, entertainment parks have become “the new anchor” of shopping centers. If before these venues boasted the presence of large chains (Fnac, Mediamarkt, Ikea) as their star dish, today they advertise other hooks: surf pools or diving, zip lines, climbing walls, skateparks, ice rinks, wind tunnels, escape rooms… “Visitors expect to live experiences, it is not enough for them to just buy, that is why they have the digital market,” they comment from Caleido to elEconomista. It is the same philosophy that once led shopping centers to go from having little more than hypermarkets to including cinemas and bowling alleys… only multiplied by a thousand. Theme parks and luxury. The result is a kind of urban theme parks of which examples abound, both of complexes in progress and of others planned: X Madrid, Oasiz (Madrid), Breogán Park (A Coruña), Infinity Valencia either Nasas Madridto name a few. Other commercial spaces also opt for another way of offering a plus to the user: exclusivity, luxury. This is the case, for example, of LaFinca Grand Caféwhich is advertised as a space with “premium services” and “haute cuisine”, or McArthurGlen Designer Outelt Málagawhich opened its doors several years ago with premium brands. The bet on exclusivity it’s not new either (it is nothing that has not been seen in spaces such as Las Roazas Village, La Roca Village, L’illa Diagonal or Galerías Canalejas), but it also helps some shopping centers to find their differentiated place. Not only that. It also allows them to make it easier for them when it comes to capturing a certain customer profile, visitors who come to Spain to practice “shopping tourism”a profile in which Americans and Chinese stand out. The sword of Damocles. It may seem like an unimportant issue, but getting the strategy right is key in a sector that is undergoing transformation and increasingly competitive. Shopping centers may not have survived the “retail apocalypse” and continue to attract thousands of users (their employers estimate that during the first half of 2025 their sales increased by 6% and customer traffic by 3.4%), but success is not guaranteed. Not at all. That even … Read more

After 20 years of works and 4,000 million euros, Asturians demand one last thing for the AVE: traveling with their dog

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“Our dogs are family. They are not an extra suitcase, they are an essential part of the trip. Europe is already ahead of us by allowing dogs of all sizes on trains. Why can’t Renfe be just as modern and empathetic?” With these words and the support of more than 5,000 signatories, Isa Díaz Yusta, who promotes a petition on Change.org, summarizes the feelings of Renfe travelers in the north of the country as stated The New Spain. And the train company does not allow the access of dogs weighing more than 10 kg on the routes that go to Galicia, Asturias or the Basque Country. That impossibility has open a wound in northern Spain. The aforementioned request is not the only one. With almost 5,000 supports, another user of the same platform also has a petition open for Renfe to allow dogs weighing more than 10 kg to travel on these routes. “We can’t always drive or leave them with someone. Many of us need the train to go see family or for work, and leaving our colleagues behind is not an option,” says the promoter on this occasion. Arancha Gómez, again another Change.org user, asks that the possibility of carrying accompanying dogs be expanded on all lines operated by Renfe. It is the same thing that Laura Serena asks for, whose request has already been collected more than 26,000 signatures. I don’t have a driving license, so I depend entirely on public transportation. And, although I have been waiting for a change for years, Renfe only allows traveling with dogs weighing more than 10 kg on four routes. FOUR!!. The rest of the country remains inaccessible for those of us who travel with large dogs. Not without my dog Indeed, as noted in the last petition, Renfe only allows traveling with dogs weighing more than 10 kg on limited routes. Since the petition was launched, Renfe has been expanding the destinations in which you can travel accompanied by large dogs but, for now, the only AVE available are still the following: Madrid-Barcelona Madrid-Zaragoza Madrid-Alicante Madrid-Valencia Madrid-Seville Madrid-Málaga Madrid-Granada However, the company The possibility of traveling with dogs is not enabled between 10 and 40 kg on all high-speed and long-distance lines. On the contrary, dogs of this size and any other can ride on Cercanías trains. If we want to travel with a dog weighing less than 10 kg, Renfe allows us to do so on all AVE, long-distance, AVLO, medium-distance and metric gauge trains. Except in the latter, the pet can travel in a carrier that does not exceed 60x35x35 cm for a surcharge. On those trains that have places specifically reserved for dogs to travel, you can pay 35 euros so that the pet does not travel in the carrier. However, as we say, only on selected routes you can travel with dogs weighing more than 10 kg. In this case, it is mandatory to fill out a document discharging the company’s responsibilities and another to confirm that we are aware of the regulations. The dog will travel in the adjacent seat and this cannot be chosen because there are pre-established places for this purpose. Furthermore, in these cases, the company provides a travel kit and has a series of standards and recommendations that are summarized in this document. In the delivered kit there is a seat cover and a mat to place on the window seat. The dog must be on a leash of a maximum of 1.5 meters and with a muzzle. In all cases, only one pet is allowed per traveler, but in the particular case of dogs weighing more than 10 kg, no more than two pets are allowed per car on the same train. Furthermore, on the Madrid-Málaga and Madrid-Granada corridors, only one pet of this size is allowed per train. Asturian users, as we have seen, complain about this type of restrictions for a line that It opened in 2023 after 20 years of work (13 years late) and a investment of 4,000 million euros. Even on lines that do allow it, some travelers also complain that the purchasing process can be too complicated. They explain in the blog Pipperontour that not all trains on the enabled lines allow traveling with dogs and, furthermore, this possibility only appears to be added in the last step of the purchase process, which makes it difficult to get a ticket. To try to make everything clearer, Renfe has a space where all frequencies can be consulted that allow large dogs but the aforementioned blog states that this list is not always updated. To all of the above we must add that it is no coincidence that some of the popular petitions requested through the Change.org platform come from northern Spain. In one of them it is remembered that Gijón is one of the cities in our country with the most registered dogs and Asturias is the Autonomous Community with the most dogs per inhabitant of our country. Photo | john crozier and Phil Richards In Xataka | “In 1961 it took Bilbao three hours and five minutes. Now it takes three and ten”: Cantabria and Spain’s drama with the train

a fishing rod and a car with missiles

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The drone war has become a volume war, and that forces Ukraine to find solutions that work not just once, but, if necessary, a hundred times a night: if Russia launches waves of Shaheds and decoy devices to saturate, the response cannot always depend on expensive missiles, heavy radars or scarce systems. The latest inventions are the best example. Creativity without luxury. What is emerging is a “field” air defense, mobile and pragmatic, where the decisive factor is not so much the perfect design but the capacity. to react quicklymove even faster and shoot down enough to keep the sky usable. In this framework, two apparently absurd ideas (a light car armed with missiles guided and an interceptor drone with what seems a fishing rod) are displaying an implacable logic: if the enemy turns the air into a highway of cheap threats, you turn the shootdown into a simple, repeatable and adaptable gesture. A buggy with missiles. The first surprise is a platform that seems more typical of an improvised patrol than an anti-aircraft battery: a light four-wheeled vehicle, an all-terrain buggy type, capable of moving through mud, open fields or roads and launch guided missiles from a rear-mounted dual launcher. Its value is not only in shooting, but in arriving on time: Shaheds fly above 160 km/h and the margin between detecting, positioning and shooting is minimal, so mobility becomes an operational survival condition. Instead of waiting for the drone, this air defense goes out to look for ithe places himself where he should, throws and moves again. That a single endowment has accumulated more than twenty demolitions suggests that, at least in certain sectors and windows, the system is functioning as a “rapid sky closure” tool, a type of anti-aircraft fighter that does not need large infrastructure to produce results. Hellfire on the ground. The most striking technical detail is the type of ammunition: due to its shape, the launcher is reminiscent of American Hellfiresmissiles originally designed for aerial platforms such as helicopters or armed drones, and which in advanced variants can act in “fire and forget” mode thanks to radar guidance. On paper, it is a huge leap compared to emergency solutions such as truck-mounted machine guns, which suffer when the enemy increases altitude, increases numbers and complicates engagement. But here it appears central tension of this war: shooting down a relatively cheap drone with a comparatively expensive missile is, in economic terms, an uncomfortable decision. Still, war is not decided by unit cost alone, but by the ability to prevent the enemy from hitting infrastructure, exhausting defenses, and normalizing damage. In some circumstances, pay more for each demolition may be rational if it avoids strategic impacts or preserves other critical munitions. The “fishing rod” The “fishing rod” in the sky. The second idea looks directly like a trench invention: an interceptor drone equipped with a protruding rod and a hanging thin rope, tensioned by a small weight, which is used to entangle the propellers of enemy quadcopter drones. In practice, the interceptor does not need to explode or land a perfect hit: he just needs to go over it, “comb” the target and let it the thread do the work dirty, turning physics into a weapon. If you like, it is an elegantly brutal response to a modern problem: when electronic warfare evolvesdrones become more resistant to the blockade and the jammingso the mechanics that cannot be “patched” with software gain value again. Tangle a propeller is the most direct way of telling a drone that it doesn’t matter how smart it is: without rotation, it will fall. Antijamming and the tangible. These tactics reflect a deeper adaptation: the battlefield is pushing both sides to combine electronic jamming with physical solutionsbecause the duel between countermeasures and counter-countermeasures no longer guarantees stable results. Nets, ropes, cheap interceptors, controlled crashes, “captures” in flight: everything points to a trend where the shooting down of drones small ones is less like classic air defense and more like a craft accelerated by urgency. Even outside Ukraine they are being tested net throwers integrated into drones or portable devices, but here innovation does not come from laboratories, but from units that need something to work as soon as possible. Two threats, two solutions. Furthermore, the interesting thing is that they do not compete with each other: each system seems optimized for a type of prey different. He missile vehicle points to the large and repetitive problem of fixed-wing Shahed/Geran style drones, fast, persistent, used in mass attacks and sometimes accompanied by decoys to saturate. The “fishing rod”, on the other hand, is a more surgical tool. against quadcopterswhich usually operate near the front, spy, correct fire or attack with light ammunition. One is road hunting against targets that they come from afarand the other is hand-to-hand fighting in the airalmost a contact combat. Together they draw a clear map: Ukraine is not looking for a single miracle solution, but rather a toolbox where each trick covers a part of the enemy’s arsenal. The cost war. It we have counted before. Ultimately, it all comes back to the same dilemma: how to tear down a lot without going bankrupt. Ukraine is already using FPV interceptors fast that can cost very little compared to traditional systems, but require an operator, expertise and pursuit time, which limits their scalability. That missile buggy It offers “cleaner” takedowns and with less human burden in the final guidance, but it forces you to select carefully when it is worth spending that shot. The “cane” it’s the opposite: an attempt to make the demolition as cheap as a simple gesture, extreme economy. In other words: air defense is no longer just advanced technology: it is tactical accounting applied to the minute. Image | Ukraine Air Command Central In Xataka | Bombing your own trench is a kamikaze tactic. Until Ukraine has turned it into a Russian butcher shop: the “second course” In Xataka | The “zombies” of the … Read more

We will increasingly see more “verified” SMS against fraud. The important thing is to understand how they really work

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We live watching our cell phones and what appears on their screen, from a notice from the bank to a code to authorize a payment. This dependency has turned the text message into fertile ground for deception, with campaigns of smishing that imitate well-known companies and sneak into conversations that seem legitimate. The problem is not only technical, it is trust: distinguishing at a glance who is really on the other side. For years, SMS has treated legitimate and fraudulent messages equally, and that neutrality is exactly what attackers exploit. Malicious campaigns detected in Spain show how names and formats of known entities are copied to gain the trust of the recipient. These messages are designed not to raise suspicion. And often, when doubt arises, it is too late to react. Say ‘hello’ to verified messages. Faced with the erosion of trust in traditional SMS, the industry has chosen to reinforce the identity of the sender instead of placing all responsibility on the user. Verified messages introduce a relevant change: they make visible whether a company has been recognized as legitimate before the message reaches the mobile. Supported by the RCS protocolthese messages add a name, logo and verification indicators with the intention of reducing one of the main weapons of fraud, confusion about the real origin of the message. BBVA. This is how it looks on mobile. In Spain, BBVA has been one of the first large banks to show this change visibly for the user. On Android, the bank’s official messages are identified with its name and logo, accompanied by an indicator that indicates them as an official channel. By clicking on that logo, the user can verify that the associated data, such as the telephone number or website, match those of the bank. Furthermore, these communications arrive in a different thread than traditional SMS, precisely to prevent them from being mixed with fraudulent messages. Bankinter has also taken the leap. Bankinter has partnered with Telefónica to distribute verified messages. The entity explains This will improve the security of “critical communications”, such as single-use codes for transfers or online payments. Here we will also find the sender verification confirmation, the official logo and additional information such as the website and a telephone number. How verification works. Behind that visible badge there is a process much less obvious to the user. The standard defined by the GSMA establishes several preliminary stages before a company can send a single verified message. First, the entity must register its identity, with a specific name and logo, and submit it to external certification by a third party that validates that the entity can use that name and logo. This validation is not enough on its own: the authority that issues it must be included in the trusted list of the recipient’s operator. Without that complete string, the check simply doesn’t show. Who verifies who. Here the so-called Verification Authorities come into play as third parties in charge of validating that a company is who it says it is before it can send verified messages. That role may fall to private companies specialized in digital verification, mobile operators or even government entities, depending on the deployment and the country. Afterwards, it is the user’s operator who decides whether they trust that authority, something that is sometimes reflected visibly in the message itself, as occurs in an official Bankinter example, where the system indicates that the verification has been carried out by Movistar. The final verification occurs when the message reaches the phone. According to the GSMA standard, the messaging app automatically downloads the sender’s profile and runs a series of technical checks before displaying any badge. It is checked that the signature is still valid, that the authority that issued it is accepted by the user’s operator and that the data has not been altered. Only if everything fits does the verification indicator appear; If something fails, the message loses that appearance of legitimacy. Does it work on iOS and Android? This scheme is not exclusive to Android. Apple added support for RCS as a carrier service starting with iOS 18, allowing you to send and receive messages with advanced features when not using iMessage. In practice, the behavior is the same: if the operator supports RCS and the standard is implemented, the system can display the name, logo and indicators associated with the sender. Without this support from the operator, the message returns to the familiar terrain of SMS or MMS, without additional verification signals. For the user, the practical learning is simple: a verified message offers more context and more clues than a conventional SMS, but it does not eliminate the need to remain cautious. Knowing that there is a technical process behind that distinction helps us better interpret what reaches our mobile phones and be wary when something does not match. However, in an environment where malicious actors never sleep, caution remains essential. Images | Vitaly Gariev | BBVA | Bankinter | Gemini 3 Pro In Xataka | Cybersecurity experts by day, cybercriminals by night: how two professionals fell after using ransomware

Tokyo was one of the few megalopolises that had kept housing prices in check. That’s over

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For years half the planet (and another half as well) viewed Tokyo with a mixture of admiration, curiosity and envy. While other metropolises were dealing with increasingly expensive housing, which was expelling the most humble families, the Japanese capital made headlines On the contrary: in 2023 there were who presented it in fact as “the last big city with affordable housing.” At least if we were talking about rents. And that was the most populated city of the planet. There is signs that that is changing. Tokyo’ the affordable‘. Binyamin Appelbaum, columnist for The New York Times, I told it very well in 2023: while a couple on the minimum wage was unable to pay the rent for a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the New York area, another Japanese couple with the same conditions (full-time work and the legal minimum wage) could afford equivalent housing in at least half a dozen districts of Tokyo. The Japanese capital was a benchmark, the example of rentals within reach of any pocket. “The last big city with affordable housing”, titled at full blast around those same dates the Australian newspaper Financial Review. Tokyo vs Manhattan. The data confirms that Appelbaum was not wrong. Although living in Tokyo is far from cheap, in 2023 the city had a residential offer large and diverse enough to not suffocate its residents. Even the most humble. In 2024 Michael Amerson, analyst at the US Department of Housing, explained that renting a one-bedroom apartment in central Tokyo cost around 80,000 yen, about $500. Other sources speak of between 630 and 1,580 dollars per month, but even those figures are far from the 4,000 that is asked for a home of the same type in Manhattan. “Unlike other metropolitan areas around the world, Tokyo has avoided a housing crisis. Residents can enjoy a vibrant urban lifestyle without having to shoulder the financial burden that residents of many other large cities bear,” pointed out Amerson. The reason? To a large extent Tokyo real estate culture. Unlike what happens in other metropolises, the Japanese capital has “an accelerated cycle of housing demolition and reconstruction,” which makes it easier to adapt to the needs of the market. But… And why is that? “People treat houses like cars,” Appelbaum joked in 2023. New construction is prioritized to such an extent that its weight in the market far exceeds that of other cities. Between 2013 and 2018, new housing represented 86% of sales in Japan, while in the US that percentage is usually around 15%. Unlike what happens in other cities that prioritize the conservation of their old buildings or pamper their historic districts, something different takes precedence in Tokyo: urban renewal. It is not just a question of the market or urban regulation. That way of thinking connects with his planning style and the history of a region forced to deal with natural disasters who has also seen how fire and the bombs They affected part of his assets. Added to this are regulatory issues that facilitate the progress of the works and their commitment to tall buildings, homes that are often small by European standards and with few green areas. Signs of change. In recent months, however, some media outlets have stopped talking about the virtues of the Tokyo model to become a question: “Is it still affordable to live there?” That is the doubt that I left bouncing in September The Japan Times in a article in which he confirms that (at least if we talk about the buying and selling market) the city is no longer within reach of any pocket. Tokyoites have encountered a price increase that affects both new housing and second-hand properties. And the latter usually wake up little interest among buyers. a study from the Tokyo Kantei company shows that it is no longer strange that the average price of a used apartment of 80 square meters exceeds 100 million yen, around 540,000 euros, with year-on-year increases that are even above 30%. Are there more indicators? Yes. They are just that, indicators, but at a minimum break the rhetoric that has surrounded the Tokyo real estate market until now. There are studies that speak of year-on-year price increases of 9% or even more than 60% if the focus is expanded and the data from 2021 and 2025 are compared. Prices are also growing in the metropolitan area (although to a lesser extent) and seem to be also affecting the rental market residential. In practice, this means that a family that a few years ago could acquire Quietly, a modern three-bedroom, 70 m2 apartment near the center of Tokyo for just over $400,000 is now forced to look at real estate agencies in other areas. And it doesn’t seem like that’s going to change. The latest data from Tokyo Kantei show that the price of a 70 m2 second-hand apartment is around 114 million yen, 34% more than in 2025. And what is the reason? Better to talk about “reasons”, in the plural. The analysts who have been launched To speculate on the reasons for the price increase, they point to the increase in material and labor costs, the influence of the pandemic on buyers’ tastes (they are now looking for houses with more rooms), the effect of historically low interest rates or simply the increase in demand for housing in Tokyo. While the rest of the country loses population, the capital remains more or less stable either even win residents. Exploring the market. There is another factor that helps understand Tokyo’s price rise, one that also has slipped in in it political debate: home purchases by foreigners, including those for speculative purposes. The weakness of the yen, the fact that Japanese real estate was more affordable than that of other countries and the lack of restrictions on foreign purchases has attracted the interest of investors of other nationalities, which has in turn been felt in the price per m2. The data are certainly eloquent. In … Read more

Mexico has decided to register all telephone lines in the country. The teleoperators have decided to challenge him

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The national mobile telephone registry has just started in Mexico and is already facing its first big test. And just a few days after it came into force mandatory registration of linesthe country’s main operators have met with the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (CRT) to request a postponement. For operators, deadlines are practically impossible to meet and to this we must add the fact that the technical systems have shown failures from day one. The challenge in figures. Mexico has more than 158 million active telephone lines that must be registered before June 30, 2026. This means that operators such as Telcel, AT&T, Telefónica and Virtual Mobile Operators (OMV) would have to jointly register 923,977 lines each day for 172 days to meet the established deadline. A complicated goal to achieve. Meeting. According to inform the media Expansión, representatives of Telefónica, the OMVs, Televisa and Canieti, which groups companies such as AT&T, attended a meeting with the CRT last Friday to insist on the extension. The main argument was that the industry only had 30 calendar days to develop, test and implement platforms capable of developing a process of such magnitude. According to account According to the media, Canieti had formally requested a postponement since December 30, but did not receive a response from the regulator. The technical problems are already visible. Telcel reported intermittencies on its platforms derived from the high demand of users trying to complete the procedure simultaneously. In addition, complaints arose about a possible security vulnerability on its portal that would have exposed personal data of clients, although the company claimed to have corrected the failure immediately. The CRT limited itself to acknowledging that there were “intermittencies on various platforms” without going into details. The economic cost. Beyond the technical challenges, the registry represents a considerable financial burden. An entrepreneur of an MVNO explained to the Expansión medium that each link has a cost of 3.45 pesos (about 17 euro cents), an amount that only includes the verification of the user with their data, without including taxes. The problem is aggravated because, according to accounts, registration is not always completed on the first attempt and can require up to three or five attempts per line. The CRT estimates point to a total investment of more than 4,053 million pesos (about 194.5 million euros), of which only 22 million pesos would be allocated to the development of the platform and identity verification would correspond to the largest weight of the amount with 4,031 million. Worry. The Mexican Association of Virtual Mobile Operators (AMOMVAC) has also joined the request for a postponement, according to they count from Mobile Time. Although they recognize the security objective of the registry, which is to combat telephone extortion, which according to the Executive Secretariat left 6,880 victims between January and July, they warn about operational, economic and social risks. The association’s main concern is associated with rural communities and populations with low digital literacy, where mobile telephony is an essential service and there is a risk that thousands of lines will be suspended if their owners fail to complete the procedure. And now what. For the moment, the CRT has not officially responded to the extension requests and the calendar remains unchanged: the deadline expires on June 30, 2026. As of July 1, unregistered lines will be suspended, both prepaid and postpaid. Cover image | Chantel and Pepu Rica In Xataka | The “B side” of the United States landing in Venezuela: a subsoil full of hypothetical rare earths

The Inditex rally has been its best fuel

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Amancio Ortega is once again among the ten greatest fortunes on the planet according to Forbes monitor in real time thanks to the rise in the stock market of Inditex and the solidity of its real estate holding Pontegadea, which have catapulted the fortune of the Spanish millionaire up to 143.5 billion dollars. This renewed stock market push has allowed him to re-enter the ‘Top 10’ of greatest fortunes on the planet, and even compete for ninth position with veteran investor Warren Buffett although, as how I collected Digital Economyonly occasionally. From the 2025 bump to the return to the ‘top 10’. In June 2025, the combination of Inditex’s weaker stock market performance and global market volatility ended removing Amancio Ortega from the exclusive group of the ten largest fortunes in the world by Forbes, falling below fourteenth place. The textile giant’s stock went on to chain several months of declines after quarterly results that grew, but not at the pace that the market expected, and that sharply cut the valuation of its assets, closely linked to the evolution of the company that it founded and of which it still retains 59.294%. The Inditex rally. However, as of December the situation took a 180 degree turn after the presentation of Inditex’s third quarter results and investors once again showed their confidence in the textile multinational. To put this boom in context, at the beginning of December, each share of Zara’s parent company was trading at just over 49 euros, and its capitalization was around 152,934 million euros. However, weeks later, the title is already trading at just over 56 euros and Inditex’s stock market value exceeded 172.2 billion euros. ​…And the solidity of Pontegadea. In parallel, Pontegadea, which channel and invest most of his participation in Inditex and the dividends generated by the textile empire he founded, acted as an amplifier of his wealth by closing some of the largest real estate transactions in its history. Pontegadea closed the year with a portfolio that has not stopped adding assets in offices, logistics and luxury residential in large international capitals, which has only increased the strength of your assets. ​The temporary “surprise” of Warren Buffett. The meteoric rise of Ortega, who has risen several positions at once, has reached its peak when the Forbes real-time index placed him in ninth position on the global list of fortunes, just ahead of the investor Warren Buffett retired. That day, the founder of Inditex closed the session with a fortune valued at 146.9 billion dollars, slightly above that of the Omaha investor, whose fortune was weighed down by a fall in the stock market, resulting in a cut of about 654 million euros. However, the stock market is what everyone else plays. While Buffett wins, so the veteran investor recovered his position the next day. Ortega, Ballmer and the new order among the ultra-rich. Ortega remains in tenth place, with a fortune estimated at 143.5 billion dollars. That level places him just ahead of Steve Ballmer, whose wealth linked to Microsoft The Los Angeles Clippers are now worth over $140 billion. The geographical distribution of the ‘top 10’ leave a photograph in which Ortega is once again the only great Spanish fortune in a select club dominated by American technology giants and the European figure of Bernard Arnaultat the head of the luxury conglomerate LVMH. In Xataka | Amancio Ortega: the billionaire who lives like another neighbor. Except for private jets and superyachts Image | GTRES, Flickr (Fortune Live Media)

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